Book published on pre-pandemic U.S./Canada border

A book analyzing Washington and B.C. residents’ views of the U.S./Canada border just before the pandemic has been released.

Author Pierre-Alexandre Beylier, a former fellow at Border Policy Research Institute (BPRI), based his book, “Constructing a Cross-Border Region in the Pacific Northwest” on a survey he conducted from late 2019 to February 2020. The survey, which Beylier conducted as a BPRI fellow, focused on residents of Blaine and other communities from Burlington to Surrey, B.C.

“We know a lot of things about the Canada/U.S. border but having the insight of border residents is not very common,” Beylier said. “Having these results helped paint a more thorough picture of the border.”

The book provides an overview on the history of Cascadia, an analysis of its trade and mobility, perceptions and representations, cross-border initiatives and regional identity. 

The survey garnered 1,500 respondents, with less than 10 percent of those, or 126 responses, from the Blaine area.

Beylier, who is an associate professor in North American studies at Université Grenoble-Alpes in France, said he wanted to study the border more locally after doing his PhD dissertation on how 9/11 impacted the U.S./Canada border.

Routledge, a British publishing company, released the 244-page book last November. Beylier said he is now interested in studying the pandemic’s lasting impact on the border.

“The border actually represents an obstacle even if there are a lot of cross-border links between Canada and the United States,” Beylier said. “In spite of everything, there’s this feeling of living in a cross-border region that is very much present, especially on the American side, and the feeling of sharing an identity, something in common, with people on the other side.”